We began dreaming about Café Miranda in the early '80s while working in a variety of restaurants in Pennsylvania & Cape May, New Jersey. Evelyn was apprenticing with John Bailey at the Bailywicke in Cape May as Kerry was doing the rounds at a good innovative restaurant town & vacation site working to add a variety of new styles to his "Eye-talian"-grandmother (see "I remember Connie" on the menu) cooking style.
We envisioned a small, casual place with a knowledgeable staff, a rather large & daily changing menu, loyal local following with many customers being on a first name basis. We named it Café Miranda after our dog, as a working name to give the yet-to-be restaurant a concrete identity as we developed the style.
By the late '80s it was time to make a move. To where? We cruised the east & came thru Rockland in '88 on a snowy February day & we liked it!
We wanted a place with a year round population, affordable buildings for Café Miranda, an un-tapped market, affordable & safe housing. Rockland & the Mid-Coast was it!
Kerry took a Chef's job at a local inn, The East Wind Inn, where he worked for four years while looking for the opportunity to "do Miranda."
In 1993 we found a building where the "Owls Fraternal & Benevolent Club" (ie: a gambling club) had resided since 1917. After several attempts at buying the building we finally got it on April first (!) & celebrated w/ a nice bottle of Champagne. Nine months later our son, Evan, was born & by that June of 1993 Café Miranda opened.
Our Mission was & is to provide a WIDE variety of hand made soulful ethnic & American styles of food, wine & desserts by a dedicated & professional long-term staff at a fair price. We continue to re-invent Miranda around those parameters and so far it has worked.